Cycle Of Awesome

Love of Basketball

I was a basketball fanatic growing up. It was the love of my life. I played year round on competitive teams and as a freshman, started for my high school’s varsity team. Basketball was my purpose, my passion in life. My teammates were my best friends and I was convinced it was how I was going to college.

Along the way though, I was faced with an injury that presented a major setback in my goals. I was diagnosed with a form of Compartment Syndrome. I had no clue what it was then either but was explained to me like this:

Like a hot dog is surrounded by a casing, so too are your muscles. When you heat a hot dog in the microwave the “meat” inside puts pressure on the hot dog’s casing. If that pressure builds too much, the hot dog is damaged and explodes. The same was true of the muscles in my legs. The fascia surrounding my muscles didn’t grow at the same rate as the muscle. It was applying crazy amounts of pressure to the muscle inside it, causing no blood flow and horrific pain.

Devastation

I was devastated. The thought of not playing basketball any more, not pursuing the possibility of a scholarship and not being with my teammates left me depressed. The choice was clear to me. I was willing to take on two surgeries, gnarly scars and a year of rehab to be ready for the next season.

Looking back, it was a major decision in my life that led to me jumping into the “Cycle Of Awesome” as I call it. If I could be active, I’d be surrounded by friends who loved to play sports too. If I was involved in sports, I’d care about my health and fitness. If I cared about my health and fitness then I’d make choices to support a healthy life. A healthy life during my teenage years would lead to a higher likelihood of having a healthy adult life.

What is the “Cycle Of Awesome” you ask?

The cycle of awesome starts early. We teach it to our children without knowing it. When we are living in the cycle we are unstoppable. When we take a detour from it, it feels as though that cycle is spinning fast and we can’t seem to figure out how to hop back in.

The Cycle of Awesome is when confidence, effort and results in one area of our life, leads to another.

Then another.

And Another.

And you get the idea.

It is the notion of gaining momentum in life because we have the control to do so. When we feel in control of one area of life we gain confidence to invest in another.

Where Does It Start?

The Cycle of Awesome starts with yourself, your body specifically. If you could make one investment in anything, your body is the first place to start. If you have lots of money but aren’t healthy…what good is money? It’s a lonely place to be if you can’t live life because your health won’t allow it.

I know I might have bias, but fueling your body and taking care of the inside is the first place to start. Filling your body with nutrient dense foods feels good physically and mentally. When you are intentional about what you put into it, you feel in control. And in fact, you are!

When you make positive nutritional habits you begin to notice changes in composition, you feel happier, and most of all you gain confidence. That confidence begins to pour out into even more areas of your life.

When you begin to feel good you gain energy. That energy is used to fuel other positive habits in your life such as exercise. And guess what? When you exercise, you get more energy and are happier all around.

When nutrition and fitness are used together your body is unstoppable. When your physical being is well cared for you are ready to move on to being awesome in other aspects of life. I hear from clients all the time that so much good begins to happen in their life when they invest in themselves. The domino effect of that investment gains major momentum as time passes.

How Do We Stay On It?

Being in this cycle doesn’t just happen.

Just like when you set out to lose weight you have to learn how to fuel your body, plan your meals and have willpower. There is no magic pill. That effort and hard work is just that…hard. But the outcome is so worth it.

The same is true in entering the Cycle of Awesome. It requires grit, effort, planning and hard work.

Once you’ve jumped into the Cycle of Awesome by investing in yourself, amazing things begin to happen. Because you are more confident and happy you spread that same vibe to others, including your family. The saying “Your vibe attracts your tribe” has quite a bit of validity to it. Soon, you are intentional about who you surround yourself with because you don’t have space for negativity. Your confidence breeds relationships that are genuine, authentic and reciprocal.

You begin to be purposeful in what you want from life. You set more goals and set out to take on new challenges. You become a better time manager. You even begin to think about how you spend your money because you want more from it.

You begin to realize that the Cycle of Awesome is the only place you want to be because it means your life has momentum and inertia.

What If You Fall Off?

At some point it might happen. Something will come along that applies pressure to the cycle and you might wonder..temporarily. When you do, you will realize it feels so amazing to be in The Cycle of Awesome that you won’t allow it to be any other way. You will have to dig deep, jump back on, and regain some speed. And once you do, it will be that much sweeter.

Newton’s first law of motion, sometimes referred to as the law of inertia, tells us that an object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an external force.

I want you to jump on that Cycle of Awesome and continue in motion. If an external force is applied, push back.

Stop Feeling Sorry For Yourself

Stop making excuses. The people in the Cycle of Awesome are there for a reason.

They too are busy. They too have a crazy busy schedule. They too have a million hats to wear.

But here is the difference, they don’t make excuses.

Instead, they channel the energy of excuse into the energy of “do.” They take action and use grit to maintain their place in the Cycle of Awesome. That power of do becomes habit because they make a conscious choice each day to stay on board. Each turn of the cycle strengthens their place in it and life becomes more rich.

You are no different.

The biggest realization I hope you will come to is that it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. When one aspect of your own cycle slips away, don’t let it derail you. Just like I tell my clients: If you have one bad meal, it doesn’t have to mean the entire day or week has to be lost. Make a choice to move on in a positive direction.

Fitness in Life

Being “fit” means so much more than muscles and mile times. It means being healthy and strong in body, mind, money, attitude, relationships and energy.

If you are already in the Cycle Of Awesome, keep after it. (Now you just have a cool way to reference it.)

If you see that Cycle of Awesome spinning for everyone else, it is time to take action and start with investing in yourself NOW.

Daily Grub Diary #3

We are all such creatures of habit. We tend to eat the foods we were raised on, shop in the same grocery stores and order the same things when we go out to eat.

I hate food habit. I joke with people and say I have food (and workout) A.D.D. I don’t like eating the same exact thing every day and I feel the same about my workouts. I get bored fast and need something new to keep me motivated and compliant. I think that is one of the main reasons I fell in love with Crossfit.

But I too fall victim to redundancy and have a few staples I gravitate towards in my busy life. I am always open to suggestions and love when current and past clients send me food they think I must try (so keep it coming)!

I began my Grub Diaries to share with people what I eat in order add a little diversity into their own diet and get out of a food rut. You can visit diary 1 here and diary two here.

What I ate on April 13, 2017

Breakfast

My coffee is still more like a ritual. I go to bed dreaming of it and wake up sprinting for it. I guess I could be dreaming of worse, right?!?!

For breakfast I fried 1 whole and 2 egg whites up in a quick spray of olive oil. I am often asked what I do with yolks. My pets are the lucky recipients of those yolks most mornings and they are right at my feet waiting for them.

Alongside the eggs I toasted 2 slices of Little Northern Bakehouse Millet and Chia Seed bread. I spread 1 tablespoon of Costco Organic Peanut Butter between the 2 slices and 1 tablespoon of Crofters Superfruit Jam. I recently found the Superfruit flavor and it has ZERO added cane sugar in it, just fruit.

While breakfast cooked I threw a Chuck Roast into the Crock Pot to cook all day with 1 jar of mild banana peppers to make my own version of Italian beef.

Lunch:

The night before I had made one of our favorite recipes, a Paleo spin on Olive Garden’s Zuppa Toscana. I use a modified version of the recipe from www.tastesoflizzyt.com. I usually leave out the bacon or butter to reduce fat. In my opinion, you just don’t need it. I also use white sweet potatoes for a hint of sweet to the savory flavor of the soup. I saute the meat and then let it cook with the broth, and potatoes and spices all day. Then roughly a ½ hour before we eat I add in fresh shredded kale and 1 cup coconut milk as the recipe suggests. And I promise, you can’t even taste a hint of the coconut flavor in it. I think it tastes even yummier the day after too.

Snack:

I was still a bit hungry after the soup so I opted for some veggies to leave more space in my day for dinner (because I love what was to come). So I sliced up some cucs and mini sweet peppers, poured 1-2 tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar over top with salt and pepper to taste. So yummy!

Pre-Workout:

About two hours after lunch I knew I would be grabbing the kids from school and sneaking in a quick workout. I hate working out hungry. I feel like it zaps the energy right out of me.

My pre-workout snack was a rice cake topped with 1 tablespoon PB Fit and half a sliced banana (and I ate the other half alone). This is a go-to snack for me. The crunch, with the sweet and salty makes me happy.

Dinner:

I wanted to share a super simple recipe in this post that you can prep ahead and can fit into a busy life. My house smelled fantastic all day with the chuck roast cooking in my Crock pot.

About thirty minutes before it was done I sauteed cauliflower rice in 1 teaspoon avocado oil (you can easily leave this out to save room on fat) and a small amount of vegetable broth to soften. I love cauliflower rice to add volume to a rice dish and to sneak in that additional vegetable serving. In another pan I followed the directions on the Lundberg Basmati rice to prep it and boom…it was so dang good.

Bedtime Snack:

I love a snack somewhere after dinner but not too close to bed. It is never anything heavy and frequently it is this: 1 tablespoon of my fresh homemade cashew pecan butter (recipe coming soon to the blog) that I save for all day and a few Enjoy Life Chocolate Chips.

So, cheers to food diversity and continually trying something new while still working in that something we love each day.

P.S. Do you want to shop for some of my favorite finds from above along with others from Trader Joe’s? Click HERE to get my Must-Have Trader Joe’s Macro Friendly and Gluten Free Finds!

Work Hard Be Kind,

AWalk

https://www.awalkmyway.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Daily-Grub-Diary-3.jpg315560awalkmacros@gmail.comhttps://www.awalkmyway.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/awalkmyway-logo-300x137.pngawalkmacros@gmail.com2017-04-27 19:23:402017-05-16 14:53:00Daily Grub Diary #3: What I Ate In A Day

How FreshBooks Changed My Small Business

I was not a business major. In fact the only “B” I got in college was in Economics and Finance (I know, total geek, right?). It is just not the way my brain works.

Somehow I became a business owner. Okay–not somehow, but with hard work, purpose and grit I’ve been a business owner for over 2 years. The first 6 months were a blur. Business was booming and I was so focused on the attention my clients needed that I neglected a whole bunch of other areas inside of my business. I was sinking….falling deeper into a hole of disorganization and clerical chaos.

This was not me.

My husband will tell you I am “Type A” to a “T”. I love organization, winning, being bossy occasionally (ok..well often) and to-do lists. I needed intervention to bring organization to my business, greater efficiency and thus profit.

I’m A Business Owner?

My business is small and I plan to keep it that way. I want personal contact with all my clients and that takes time. I want to spend my time doing the important stuff. I know there are a million people out there like me who never thought their passion would grow into a thriving business. In fact, it still feels weird to even say I am a “business owner” as I feel like it is an awesome hobby.

So why am I , a nutrition coach, writing about business stuff?

When I took the time to look around me and see how many people are pursuing their own small business success I was shocked. If someone would have only told me these things when I first began, I would have saved myself so much frustration and time.

There are moms making adorable wooden signs, men making knives and people offering all type of services who have felt that same sinking pressure in their chest to get their $#*% together in their small business endeavors.

Learned The Hard Way

Here is the honest truth, I think the best of people. I assume if they commit to paying for a service they will. But I got to a place where I realized that wasn’t happening. I was holding up my end of coaching but I had clients that were not. Worst part is I had to come to the realization that it was my fault. I was holding them accountable in their nutrition but not in their financial obligation to me. I just sometimes felt bad asking them to pay. So, I continued to serve them and they took greater and greater advantage of me.

I needed a tool to give them a gentle reminder and I needed to do a better job of tracking it.

I had researched many software programs that could help me track expenses, profit, create invoices that were super user friendly for both me and my clients. I wanted simple, nothing fancy, with a very streamlined inputting option. After much research I gave FreshBooks a go with a Free 30 Day Trial.

It changed everything in my business. My stress of organization faded fast, clients paid every invoice and my time was freed up to focus on them and becoming a better coach. (#winforeverybody) Not to mention it was easy to learn and implement into my business immediately.

I am a business owner but food is my passion! Visit my library of Free Resources for nutritional tips, recipes and grocery shopping lists.

All In One Place

I love to see the big picture of things. I love that you log into FreshBooks and you have a dashboard view that shows where you are in real time. What your expenses are to date, what your income is, what invoices are outstanding. An easy to see line graph provides a quick snapshot of all the details.

The App

This is the biggest game changer for me. Having an app to verify invoices and payments has been awesome but the major bonus has been the option to input expenses while on the go. You simply open the app, select the expenses tab and add each expense right then and there. Even more awesome is you can take a picture of the receipt and enter it along with the expense so you have it for tax purposes and confirmation.

Credit Card Acceptance

A big one that sent me in search of an alternative to PayPal was the ability to accept credit cards. Many clients were miles from me, didn’t use PayPal and wanted a simple way to pay. They made the request and I wanted to make their life easy. The ability to accept credit cards increases the guarantee for punctual payment.

Automatic Invoices

I started my business using PayPal. It was easy and simple. But even a business account with PayPal lacked a major necessity for me and that was automatic invoices. Initially I had to generate each invoice by hand to send to clients. It was time consuming and pulled my attention away from more important aspects of my business. With FreshBooks you can create automatically generated invoices that will be sent out on the date selected. However, FreshBooks still integrates with PayPal and provides clients the continued option to pay from there as well. You can also look at each invoice to verify client receipt and whether or not it has been viewed.

Late Notices

You can also select the option with each clients to send late notices. You have the ability to choose how many days after the invoice due date for the notice to be sent and can turn the feature on or off as needed. I never want to be an annoyance to a client. However, I appreciate receiving reminders myself when an email gets lost or my mind spaces a payment.

Processing Fee

The processing fee per transaction is comparable to PayPal, anywhere from 2.9-3.5% of the total amount depending on the type of card used. For Visa and Master card, the fee is 2.9% of the total amount + .30 per transaction. For AMEX, the fee is 3.5% of the total + .30 per transaction. The great part is those fees are automatically moved into your expenses so you don’t have do them by hand.

Cost

The cost for a basic FreshBooks account is $15 for up to 5 active clients, $25 for up to 50 active clients and $50 per month for up to 500 clients. It is an extremely affordable and worthwhile business expense.

A Few Hiccups

When clients pay from another source such as PayPal, you must go in by hand to confirm payment for Profit & Loss reports. Not a huge deal at all.

In addition, their bulk action options are a little challenging. I’ve found to make changes to all invoices you must go into each invoice directly to guarantee successful changes. These few hiccups are an easy oversight for me.

If you are a small business owner, I strongly encourage you to invest in options that will allow you to put your time into the things that matter most in your business and grow it in the direction you want. FreshBooks allows me to do just that.

Are Ghost Servings Killing Your Progress?

I love food.

Like A LOT.

If I could eat all day, I would be the happiest girl in the world. I have never been the girl to order a salad on a dinner date (just ask my hubby) or the girl to leave any food on my plate at the end of a meal. I embrace my love for food fully.

However, it could easily get out of control and has at some points in my life. Food has controlled my emotions, my relationship with the gym and my confidence until I found balance by tracking my macros. I love the food freedom flexible eating brings and it works!

Gaining Weight

I’ve been in a weight gain phase for months. Let’s call it a “massing” phase to sound much cooler. I have gained 10 pounds over the last 4 months and maintained it in an attempt to spend time focusing on my strength, adding size and my personal relationship with the scale versus what I see in the mirror. It has been more amazing than I imagined. But also more difficult to gain weight with intention than I expected.

Ghost Servings

The truth is, I was eating lots of food. Often times because I was trying to gain weight I would find myself taking a few extra bites here, a few extra handfuls there and a huge mental justification for it. I was “massing”…duh!

But gaining or not, that extra food disrupts the consistency I worked so hard to maintain. One bonus indulgence of peanut butter and I had added eight grams of fat to my day.

The truth is those “ghost servings” can seriously kill your progress.

I realized I needed to own up and face the music of my choices. Honesty was calling and I needed to answer.

Here Is Why

Imagine you are at a party with a plethora of tempting food options. You stay close to the grilled chicken skewers and fresh fruit and veggie tray for the most part. Then you decide you’ve got some room for chips and salsa. Soon, the 8 chips you accounted for turns into 24 and you’ve went from consuming 7 grams of fat to 21 grams of fat, a difference of 150 calories in a matter of 10 hot seconds.

The same is true at home. It is so easy to begin to make your kids that Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich they love for lunch with a side of fruit and chips. After you make the sandwich you lick the peanut butter smothered spoon and then take a few bites of each kid’s sandwich to make sure “it’s just right.” And boom…ghost serving sabotage.

Or how about when you scoop out that tablespoon of hummus or nut butter that really is more like a tablespoon and a half but you only account for just a single?

In your heart you know the choice you made, but chose only to record what fits. If what ends up in your stomach doesn’t match what ends up on paper then you are doing yourself a huge disservice. A few little bites aren’t the the true problem. Repeated, daily ghost servings could be adding hundreds of additional calories a week and thus killing your calorie deficit for loss.

Self Reflection

Tracking your macros only works if you are honest about what you take in. You can play food Tetris in MyFitnessPal all day long and make it look perfect. At the end of the day though progress doesn’t lie. If you aren’t seeing the changes you expect it is likely that you too need to make a personal call to the doctor of honesty.

I remind my clients often that short term sacrifices bring long-term gain. The purpose of flexible dieting is to give you food freedom but it takes hard work and consistency to see the journey through all the way to the end. Most of all, it requires honesty about the food choices you are really making.

The Proof Is In The Pudding

Data doesn’t lie. As a coach, I’ve seen loads of data come in from clients that show me their ghost serving intake is high. They send these perfect diaries on paper but the scale weight and other qualitative feedback just doesn’t match up.

When we truly connect and have that deep moment of self reflection, I can see in one week that progress shift when clients get rid of those ghost servings and dial it in.

All Too Frequent

If you find yourself a victim to ghost servings all too frequently then it could be a great sign that you need to increase your intake. Sometimes if we give ourselves a bit more play on intake, the notion of feeling restricted dissipates and you actually see more progress because you can still work within your macro framework without those ghost servings. Don’t be afraid to eat more to drive results.

If you are reading this and are starting to feel that inner voice of reason start to speak to you, then maybe you need a little push to greater accountability. If you begin to record everything you eat including those ghosts servings you will see the difference in what that intake looks like. You will bring back that momentum of progress and push forward with a greater sense of appreciation for accuracy.

5 Ways to Avoid The “Gym Trap”

Standing in front of my daughter’s school for afternoon pickup, I was approached by another mom.

Other Mom: “Are you a personal trainer? I am looking for someone to come to my house to train me a few times a week. I just can’t lose weight like I used to after having my son a year ago.”

Me: “I am not a trainer. I am a nutrition coach.” She went on to ask more questions and I responded with answers about macro nutrition, effort and a general focus on kitchen effort.

Other Mom: “Oh no…that is way too hard for me,” she replied. “I don’t have the discipline and time to pay attention to my diet. I’d rather just go to the gym.”

I politely wished her great success in finding someone to work with and hoped she got the results she was looking for by “just going to the gym.”

Here is the deal people…that just won’t get you where you want to go. The best results come from a combination of work in the kitchen and in the gym. I was frustrated. Frustrated for her because I wanted so badly to tell her that if she would actually invest in fueling her body that the gym pressure would be relieved. That if she invested time and hard work in learning how to form good eating habits that she wouldn’t fall victim to the “gym trap.” That her money would be better spent on good quality food and finding someone to show her a sustainable eating approach than on a personal trainer.

What is the “Gym Trap”?

The gym trap is something I am all too familiar with. It is that black hole of treadmill running, back-to-back cardio classes and lifting to try to justify the late night pizza and beer sessions and all day chips and salsa benders. Oh, I’ve been there many times and can 100% relate. I used to pig out on Barro’s pizza and wings and Cold stone ice cream and then go run for hours to try and find balance. It wasn’t healthy and it never worked.

Here is what I’ve realized:

2 hours of cardio in the gym is much easier than 12 hours of daily discipline in the kitchen for most people. It used to be for me too. But it never bred real results.

You Can’t Out-Train A Poor Diet

It is a saying I’ve heard in the past but never truly listened to. I was oblivious for a long time thinking I was eating to fuel my body only to blow that hard work with repeated binging habits. No wonder I was getting nowhere no matter how many miles I ran or how much weight I lifted.

If You Don’t Know Where You Are, Then You Don’t Know Where To Go

Here was my problem: I really had no idea of what my caloric intake was. I thought I was eating “clean” and that my binges were so minor they wouldn’t affect my progress. “It’s only one day” I thought. I will work out even harder this week. And that pattern repeated itself over and over again.

I had resolved myself to thinking that the girls in fitness magazines were content with starving themselves. I was never gonna be that girl I thought, I love food way too much for that. I pretended to be content with where I was, act confident and eat on.

When I actually began to look deeper into what I was really eating it was eye opening. In fact my 3 mile moderate paced run was burning roughly 300 calories and was completely negated by my 2-3 tablespoons of almond butter a day habit because I really had no food awareness. I had no idea how much each scoop of nut butter, although a great fat, was adding up to. Or how much each pump of mocha syrup in my coffee really meant to my body. No wonder I saw ZERO progress?

If I didn’t know what I was actually eating how could I ever reach my goals?

It is so basic. I was a science teacher for goodness sake. I taught my students every year that we had to have a baseline to measure against to understand if the variables we are changing are actually affecting the outcome.

Why would my diet be any different?

I had to go back to the beginning and find out my food baseline until I could ever know how to make progress.

I encourage you to do the same. Begin to track your intake by writing it in a journal or even better recording it in an app like MyFitnessPal to truly see where you are. My clients gain so much value in that very first step of becoming food aware by learning what they are really putting into their bodies.

Basic Principle of Scale Loss

The most basic principle of losing weight is a discussion of calories in versus calories out.

If you eat more than you use then you won’t see that scale shift.

That includes your daily fitness activity, your own metabolic rate but also your resting metabolism, called N.E.A.T. All are critical components to scale progress and contribute to that calorie out component.

Find What Works For You For The Long Haul

Once you know where you are, you can begin to hunt for that diet lifestyle that works for you. Not the one that lasts 30 days and then you gain all the weight back.

The one that actually teaches you how to become “food aware.” The one that teaches you how to navigate life through vacations, social situations and date nights. It gives you skills to make choices in those situations to support your goals.

There is no “one-size-fits-all” approach to finding nutritional sustainability. The value of knowing where you are and what you are putting into your body is a perfect springboard to finding the size that does fit you.

Food Awareness Is Priceless

I know that tracking food for the rest of your life using an app is not for everybody. But here’s what is: learning food awareness so that you know how to eat balanced portions, create meal balance, plan ahead and become a proactive eater over a reactive one.

I have seen clients pay over $500 per month for weight loss centers and supplements. Their success is extremely short term until they enter back into the real world eating real food.

Like learning any new skill, food awareness takes time and effort. But I guarantee its value is lifelong and priceless.

Enhance Your Relationship

Ok not what you’re thinking…but close.

Working out should be a stress reliever. A thing you enjoy doing not a thing you do to justify or offset food intake. By being in control of your food you enhance your relationship with the gym.

I have been a chronic exerciser my whole life. My freshmen year of college is when it began. I was in a new place, with new food, new people and a major fear of gaining the “Freshman Fifteen.” I didn’t realize it then but I was obsessed. I was running through the snow to the gym to only run more on a treadmill. It did relieve my stress but the heavy feeling in my chest if I missed a day was a burden. I carried that feeling with me for a long time until I finally found a sustainable way of eating.

When you combine diet and exercise your results are enhanced. But what I’ve found is that when my diet was finally in check I didn’t feel so obligated to exercise. I began to enjoy it even more. Working out finally became something I chose to do and not always something I felt I had to do. Now if I miss a day, I have zero anxiety about it and that feels so liberating.

By gaining control and putting the effort into how you fuel your body you too can avoid the “gym trap.” Think about your relationship with fitness and food and where your energy is best spent. Invest those hours of hard work in the kitchen too so it pays dividends the rest of your life.

Work Hard Be Kind,

AWalk

https://www.awalkmyway.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Gym-Trap-.jpg315560awalkmacros@gmail.comhttps://www.awalkmyway.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/awalkmyway-logo-300x137.pngawalkmacros@gmail.com2017-03-29 01:05:102017-03-31 23:00:505 Ways To Avoid The Gym Trap: Work Harder In The Kitchen Than In The Gym

7 Simple Tips to Eat Healthy In Disneyland

Disney Fanatics

I married into a Disney-loving family. My husband has amazing childhood memories of his trips to Disneyland. It is inevitable that our children will have them too, as it is near and dear to his heart. As an adult…I get the attraction. There is something indescribable about seeing the amazement and wonder on your children’s faces when they lock eyes with their favorite Disney character. Or when the Electric Light Parade passes by and they can’t contain their excitement. Someday, that innocence will fade, so I am with him. Let’s enjoy that magical moment while it lasts.

Disney Bender

In 2015, almost 18.5 million people visited Disneyland in Anaheim. For the average Disney goer trips to Disneyland mean a 3-day binge on corn dogs, pretzels, and Mickey shaped ice cream treats. But that binge just leaves you feeling YUCK. That is a whole lotta corn dogs!

Disney Does Most Things Right

You can’t dispute Disney does everything right. Well, mostly.

The one thing they could improve on is food selection. Don’t get me wrong, they’ve made major strides. Like anything though, you can’t be a victim of choice. Instead, you have to be a victim of your own success and plan for your adventure to the Happiest Place on Earth.

When I began to track my macros years ago, we had a Disney trip planned. I’ll admit I was terrified of how I could manage to stay within my numbers and also so excited to put my hard work and food awareness to the test. I’d already managed to make Disney food happen gluten-free, now I was determined to make it happen within the framework of my goals.

For Macro Tracker and Non-Tracker Alike

Although you may not be a “Macro Tracker” yourself. The take home from this post is food awareness. This post will help you navigate Disneyland with heightened food awareness and a greater sense of success having “survived” and still maintained your nutritional goals.

How to Eat Healthy In Disneyland With These 7 Simple Steps

(And Still, Hit Your Nutritional Goals)

1. Eat Breakfast Outside The Park

I think this one is a necessity on so many levels. Depending on the season, the park opens somewhere between 8 and 10 am. Who wants to spend their first hour at the park, when things are less busy, eating? Not us! That is our time to get on as many rides as possible before the crowd arrives.

Eat breakfast at the hotel if offered. Many hotels near Disney recognize this need and offer great buffet or made-to-order options. We love staying at the Embassy Suites at Hilton, Anaheim South because of their made-to-order omelet options, fresh fruit and a host of other selections to start the day. Not to mention it is fun, budget-friendly and well located. Don’t be afraid to ask for things that meet your needs like egg whites. They may not advertise their availability but often have them standing by.

If your hotel doesn’t offer breakfast, then prepare a simple meal in your hotel room of oatmeal, hard boiled eggs and fresh fruit. I have vivid memories as a child of my mom bringing in an electric skillet to prepare some amazing hotel room breakfasts that saved money and were healtheir for us.

2. Bring In Your Food

Disneyland’s food policy permits you to enjoy your own food in the picnic areas just outside the gates. However, one look around you can see hundreds of people enjoying snacks they packed in to save money, time and health. I’ve never been asked to take my food elsewhere. They do permit you to bring in food if you have a specific dietary need or allergy which is really the grey area that allows almost everyone to bring in what they like.

My suggestion is pack food that will help you maintain a lean intake as you are likely to eat more fat in your meals out when needed. Pack things that are protein packed!

When my family goes, I pack lunch meat, hard boiled, eggs, fruit, fruit and veggie squeeze pouches and usually some type of bar as a snack. Check out my vacation travel post (you can download the ebook here) for a long list of snack ideas that will work perfectly for Disneyland.

3. Find the Hidden Snack Places

Disney has improved their snack options. Path side vendors have carts filled with fresh fruits, some veggies and not so sugary laden snacks.

But protein-packed snacks are still hard to come by, as is the case during most travel. My favorite go-to protein snack is Bengal Barbecue in Adventure land in Disneyland. They have some awesome chicken, beef and even bacon wrapped asparagus skewers. A simple, and cost-effective, way to snack on something to keep that protein up.

Pickles? (They deserve their own heading)

Since I was a child pickles have been my jam! I once ate an entire jar in one sitting. Then, I puked them up all night on the bathroom floor. Lesson learned…pickle moderation.

But a gigantic pickle from the Main Street General Store or another vendor is another great option to fill you up without breaking the macro bank. I love volume food!

4. Choose Your Dessert Wisely

Yep–how could I not mention dessert? A sweet treat in Disneyland is almost a requirement, right?

Two words…Dole Whip. The Dole Whip is a must in the Disney Parks, (located at the Tiki Hut in Adventureland) especially in the late afternoon when the weather heats up. It is a non-dairy soft serve yogurt indulgence and brings back so much nostalgia.

But do you know what the macronutrient value of the Whip is?

To no surprise all carbs, 18g per ½ cup on average, and zero fat or protein (questionable here). If you make it a Dole Whip Float then add in extra carbs for Pineapple juice. Not a horrible choice to cure that Disney sweet tooth for sure. A local yogurt shop even carries the “Dole Whip” flavor which brings back Disney memories when you can’t be at the happiest place on earth.

5. Bring Your Own Water Bottle

One reason many people feel exhausted after a day of Disney is not always screaming children and over stimulation. It is often dehydration. It is easy to move through the day with a “do everything” attitude that you forget to drink water. Take advantage of Disney’s newer water refill stations and bring your own water bottle to refill all day FREE. Not too many things are free at Disneyland so drink as much as you can. It makes that pricey ticket more worth it (lol).

6. Disney Check Meals

Disney has done a great job of advertising the new “Mickey Check” program. My kids have come running to me to tell me all about Mickey’s desire for them to eat healthier after seeing television commercials. Well done Mickey, well done.

But what does this really mean? Disney’s Mickey check seeks to help families find healthier options both inside and outside the Disneyland Parks and Resorts. To receive a Mickey Check a meal or snack must meet certain nutritional standards.

Although the dietary guidelines don’t provide specific macronutrient information, they are a better selection for both kids and parents alike. You will find Mickey Check items in most sit-down restaurant selections within the park and lots of brands at home.

7. Plan Your Big Meal

If you are going to eat out at one of Disney’s restaurants for a nice dining experience during your time at the park, pick it wisely. Plan ahead and look at what each restaurant has to offer. Making a reservation will save you time and will guarantee you healthier options to support your goals. If you wait until your family is HANGRY you are likely to settle for something far less healthy and less filling in the heat of the (hangry) moment.

My favorite place to eat at the Disney Parks is just outside the Park at Tortilla Jo’s, a Mexican food restaurant. In fact, Mexican food is one of my regular go-tos because I can control the ingredients and navigate gluten free options more easily. They have amazing fajitas and other options for the entire family. My kids love the balloon artist that can make the most amazing Disney balloon characters (seriously..they are talented.)

Do you have another tip I missed to eat healthy at Disneyland? I’d love to hear it below.

Enjoy your next Disney stay a little more aware and making hoices to support your health!

5 Tips To Make MyFitnessPal Easier To Use

If you ask me, or the millions of other nutrition coaches out there, the real difference in nutritional success is accountability. Writing down, documenting, and recording your intake leads to nutritional success. This is nothing new and I see it in my own clients daily. MyFitnessPal has become one of the most popular, simple to use tools for increasing both nutrition and fitness accountability.

I have all of my clients use the MyFitnessPal app. I love its ease of use, its flexibility, the huge food database and the cost…FREE. It also allows you to opt for an upgraded option for $10 a month with access to more features. It syncs with some of the most popular fitness tracking devices such as the Fitbit that allow you to track your day-to-day fitness expenditure. Many of my clients love the convenience of having their food and fitness all come together through one simple tool.

After working with hundreds of clients, I’ve discovered that there are a few features of MyFitnessPal that many clients just don’t know about. I know there have to be thousands of others out there missing out on these same awesome features that will make its use much more simple. These features can offer some reprieve from the tediousness of tracking in the beginning and are guaranteed to make your tracking more efficient. Not to mention, you may become an MFP expert and share these tips with others. Short on time? Download these tips HERE in pdf form to save for later.

5 MyFitnessPal Tips to Make It Easier To Use

1. Turn It Sideways

When new clients begin with me, one of the areas they tend to struggle with is learning how to balance their meals. I provide them with some general macronutrient meal goals in the beginning in order to help give them some guidance and targets. This helps to provide them a greater sense of balance throughout the day so they aren’t left feeling glutinous before bed, with too much food left, or starving from not enough food. Balanced meals also help improve satiation and regulate hormones throughout the day.

While looking at your diary, a quick turning of the phone sideways allows for you to get a great view of the meal breakdown. You can see how many grams of each nutrient you took in or have planned for in order to work towards meal balance.

To get the meal break down view below.

2.Tap The Top Toolbar

I’ve noticed that I was spending so much time clicking several buttons to go between my diary and my daily totals. Then viola–I discovered the most simple of all hidden features: the top toolbar tap. This quick tip allows you to move back and forth between your diary and nutrients views with one quick tap.

Simply tap the toolbar on your running totals for the day and it will take you right to your macronutrient goal screen.

Boom…You are welcome!

3. Change Your Diary Headings

Many of my clients have performance goals so we spend time working on nutrient timing and pre and post-workout ratios. This might be my favorite option in MFP because it allows you to really zone in on where you are budgeting which macros. By naming meals specific for your goals, lifestyle or habits, you can assess where you are spending your macro budget. If you aren’t sure what macro tracking is then you can download my Macro Tracking Beginners Guide HERE.

You can change your diary meal descriptions from a desktop ONLY by going into the settings option.

Select “Diary Settings”

From there you can rename each meal description to your liking. I like to have my clients add pre-workout and post-workout to the already existent breakfast, lunch, dinner, and snacks. Ultimately, it is up to you to select meal names that make this lifestyle, not a “diet.”

4. Copy Meals

Using MyFitnessPal can be tedious at first. I totally get it.

But utilizing some of the features geared toward efficiency, you can easily eliminate some of the tediousness. One of those features is the ability to copy meals. I use this feature often in many situations.

For example, I always over prepare dinner. I like to make more than enough at dinner to create lunch for the next day for both my husband and I. I call it “double prep.”

The copy feature allows me to copy my dinner into tomorrow’s lunch. This saves me the time of having to enter each meal item again when I eat my leftovers for lunch. I love efficiency and planning ahead! Why reinvent the wheel? Copy and save yourself time and sanity. You can also save these tips in pdf form for later by clicking HERE.

First, tap the small dots in the meal you wish to copy from.

Next, select the option “Copy From” or “Copy To.”

You will then select the meal you wish to copy to.

The copy feature also allows my husband to copy my meal into his diary. He can go into my diary and follow the same steps as above. He can then adjust his portion sizes to fit his needs. This is awesome if you are at a party or a friend who uses MFP has to input a recipe that you can copy into your own. One note to remember is that you must be “friends” with the person you are copying from or to in order to access their meal diary.

5. Create Recipes

Do you have a favorite morning coffee routine?

A weekly go-to staple in your dinner rotation?

MyFitnessPal allows you to create a recipe of your own so that you can enter it one time and utilize it over and over again. This saves you time from entering each ingredient manually every time you enjoy it.

First, go to “Add Food”.

You will notice the recipe option on the far right.

Then select “Enter Ingredients Manually”

You will then type in your recipe information and the number of servings.

My example is a simple morning coffee combo that will serve 1.

1 Scoop Vital Proteins Collagen (this adds some protein and health benefits and is awesome). You can read more about Vital Proteins here along with their awesome products.

Select “Add Ingredient”

You will then search for each ingredient that will be included the recipe. You will select each ingredient and confirm its nutritional validity. It will add that ingredient to the recipe along with the nutritional values.

Continue to add all ingredients and quantities for the recipe.

Once complete, you will be able to see all macronutrient values for the set serving size.

When the recipe is done you will be able to view the name, servings and all nutritional information to confirm its contents.

You will then notice it adds that recipe to your Recipe tab for future use.

You can also add recipes similarly from your desktop.

I hope these not-so-obvious MyFitnessPal tips help make your journaling and tracking experience even easier. You are already accomplishing the number one variable of nutritional success…accountability. Using MyFitnessPal is an extremely valuable tool in food awareness but can be a bit overwhelming initially. Give yourself time to learn the technology and use these very simple MyFitnessPal tips to make your journey much more user-friendly and download them here for reference later.

Did I miss your favorite not-so-obvious feature on MFP? Comment below and share!

Work Hard Be Kind,

AWalk

Click the link below if you are ready to begin your nutritional transformation to make a healthier you!

This post may contain affiliate links to products I love, believe in and use every week. By purchasing them through this link, I may receive a small commission. I appreciate your support in continuing to support the addition of valuable content to my blog.

https://www.awalkmyway.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/5-Tips-To-Make-MyFitness-Pal-Easier-To-use.jpg315560awalkmacros@gmail.comhttps://www.awalkmyway.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/awalkmyway-logo-300x137.pngawalkmacros@gmail.com2017-02-28 13:55:212018-03-01 14:43:535 Tips To Make MyFitnessPal Easier To Use

That means bring on the heat, no school schedules and vacation!!! I have so many amazing memories from family trips when I was young and so many of them involved food. As an adult, nothing is different…except that I am 35 now and still get just as giddy about traveling. I no longer have the body nor the metabolism of a 16 year old. So, I enjoy my food on vacation in a way that helps me stay on top of my nutrition game.

With so many of you heading out on trips for spring break and summer vacay, this blog post went to the top of my priority list. Questions about how to eat healthy and stay on track during vacation is one of the top questions that I get from clients and followers.

I want you to know that you can travel, maintain your healthy lifestyle and fully enjoy vacation or or a work trip.

8 Tips To Help You Hit Your Macros When Traveling

1.Hit That Protein

The one macro nutrient I see most clients miss (myself included) while busy and traveling is protein. Protein is key in fat loss (if that is your goal) and to maintain muscle growth and recovery. You want to continue to support your hard work in both a resting and active metabolism by keeping protein up.

To help hit that protein here are some ideas:

Breakfast

Many hotels lack a great morning breakfast. It is usually a display of muffins, donuts, danishes that smell of sweet sugar and are fat ridden. The one option they tend to have is egg. I have a noticed a trend of hard boiled eggs. In my opinion—even better. On a recent trip I grabbed 4 HBE, scooped out 2 of the yolks (to save my fat options for a later meal) and easily hit roughly 20 grams of protein to start my morning. If you plan to eat breakfast out, opt for an egg white omelet or ask for a ratio of yolks to whites that fit your goals. For a side, ask for potatoes, fruit or a healthy carb that fits your craving.

Lunch

I am a fan of high quality lunch meat , rotisserie chicken or lean jerky. They are easy to buy in measurable amounts and are easy to keep stored in a cooler or fridge. Tuna packs are also an easy and super high protein option.

Dinner

Dinner tends to be the meal I enjoy the most while on vacation. It is the one meal I plan my day around. Regardless, I opt for something that keeps protein up. If I have tacos, I try for chicken. If I have a gluten free pizza, I add sliced chicken breast and lots of veggies. If we have an American style meal, I chose salmon or a nice lean steak.

Protein Shake Nightcap

If you find yourself still lacking protein at the end of the day, try a protein night cap of casein (slower digesting), whey or plant based to finish off your day.

Want these tips sent to your inbox?

2.Pack Snacks To Fill The Gaps

Snacks, snacks and more snacks are the key to keeping your intake dialed in. Traveling, for work or pleasure, can disrupt your normal routine. You might be so busy you forget to eat or so bored all you want to do IS eat. Either way, if you have snacks at your fingertips that fit your goals…things will go much better.

Here are some great ideas:

Bars

Popcorn

Pop Chips

Deli Meat

Jerky

Hard Boiled Eggs

Baby Food Squeeze Pouches

Oats

Trail Mix

Rice Rollers or cakes

Fruit

Fruit Leathers

Nut Butter Packets

Pre-cut veggies

3. Ask For A Frig

When you make your hotel reservation, ask for a refrigerator. Many hotel rooms include one but others will deliver one to your room (for free) if not. This makes for easy storage of your snacks and gives you a great in room breakfast option as well.

4. Plan Ahead For Your Meal(s) Out

On a normal day at home, I push my clients to spread their fats evenly throughout the day so that it helps maintain normal hormone function and helps them to feel full. If you really want to enjoy a higher end fat meal out, eat lean leading up to it. Opt for an egg white omelet, an Americano over a whole milk latte, chicken breast at lunch, etc. Although you may not be able to track while traveling, you are making the effort to manage your intake and maintain those goals.

5. Don’t Be Afraid To Ask For It The Way You Want It

Some people are so worried to seem high maintenance when dining out. They are afraid to ask questions or ask for substitutions. You shouldn’t be. It is your health and your dining experience that you are paying for. I’ve personally had a head chef come to my table to say thank you for changing the way a meal was ordered to satisfy my gluten free needs. When I went back, they had added that option to their menu!

Ask for it grilled or steamed instead of breaded, ask for less cheese or more cheese if you need it. Ask what oil they use or if there is butter in the potatoes. They may be apprehensive solely because the server may not have an immediate answer.

Asking questions helps you gain more experience and knowledge while eating out and helps you hit your target with more accuracy.

6. Think High Carb, Low Carb.

It is the yin and the yang. What I mean is if you go out and crush a stack of awesome pancakes for breakfast, then think about choosing a lower carb option for dinner. It allows you to enjoy something you really want but keeps your intake average by opting for something lower in carb at the next meal. If you don’t plan to track tightly this will at least prevent you from being way off target.

7. Be Reasonable With Adult Beverages

Big kid drinks, as we call them in our house, are part of the travel routine. Those drinks however, can add up! If you plan to enjoy them then you will have to sacrifice real food carbs for it. If you plan to track alcohol then you will treat it as a carb. For every 1 gram of carbohydrate consumed, the body uses 4 Kcal of energy to burn it. If your adult beverage, let’s say a glass of red wine, has 120 cals then the total carbs consumed will be 30 grams. That is 30grams of sweet potatoes you sacrifice in its place. Enjoy them with caution and planning.

8. Accept Haphazard and Enjoy Yourself

It is vacation after all, you need to enjoy yourself. Navigating through a trip with a heightened awareness of your macro intake is in most cases strides ahead of where my clients have ever been. After vacations, many clients come back so thrilled with their ability to make great choices to support their goals without the feeling of missing out on vacation for food. It doesn’t have to be perfect but awareness and loose tracking will leave you feeling great post-vacay rather than coming home with post-vacay food guilt.

Don’t Be Afraid To Be A Beginner

In second grade I remember being afraid to do a penny drop from the monkey bars because I didn’t know how. I didn’t want to look silly in front of my friends who could nail the penny drop. For those of you who don’t know, a penny drop is when you hang upside down from the monkey bars by your knee pit (yes…it is a word) then plummet to earth while rotating one hundred eighty degrees to land on your feet.

So, do you know what I did?

I played soccer, tether ball, basketball and completely avoided the monkey bars. I never learned how to do a penny drop and honestly, I regret it to this day. I was afraid. Afraid to fail and afraid to admit that I was a beginner and needed help. I have been afraid of this my entire life. In fact, I am a bit afraid even writing about it because I am admitting it for the world to know and that feels nauseating.

Self Realization

I realized a few years ago this has been a theme my whole life. I’ve always wanted to seem like I knew what I was doing. Not because I wanted to impress anyone but because I was afraid to admit that I didn’t know. That if I admitted I didn’t know someone would think I was a failure. And one of the things I hate most in life…failing.

This self-realization came when I began to CrossFit. I know what you are thinking…not another CrossFit obsessive story. But just hear me out…

Crossfit is humbling. You essentially try a whole bunch of new movements that your body has never done for consecutive days and realize that the athlete you thought you were, has left you. Your body is expected to move in ways it never has and do it efficiently, effectively and gracefully.

I was none of those things in the beginning. So, I became obsessed. I wanted to be good at every single movement…in fact, the best. I was a runner, a cardio queen, but not a weightlifter. I practiced at home and stayed at the gym extra hours to increase my skill level. I began to throw more weight on the bar in an effort to compete with the best with a total sacrifice of correct technique. And I did that for a long time. Until I realized, I wasn’t really getting better. In fact I hit a huge plateau. I had been lifting at the same weight for months and I had no idea why. So I worked harder with the same ugly technique and got nowhere.

Then it came to me. I had sacrificed technique, the foundation, the beginning, in an effort to compete. I had to change something in order to overcome this stagnation.

That something was admitting I was a beginner.

Starting Over

I needed to start over, from the ground up, and retrain my bad habits. I had to put my pride aside, admit my faults and become a beginner by taking some big steps back before I could move forward.

Can you relate?Have you been in this place in life before?

It isn’t easy. It is an ego check and honestly embarrassing. To top if off I am a CrossFit coach. I needed a coach with more knowledge than I had at lifting to coach me, a coach.

When I had this epiphany about myself, I began to reflect at similar situations in my life. I began to identify moments and opportunities that I missed out on because I wasn’t willing to be a beginner. I wasn’t willing to admit I didn’t know because my pride was too big to admit I didn’t. I missed out on learning more in college because sometimes I felt like I knew the content so well, when in fact I didn’t truly deeply understand. I missed out on being a better mom at times because I often felt like I had mastered certain stages of their life, when in fact I hadn’t (and still haven’t). I missed out on being a better wife because I didn’t want to admit to my husband that I was a beginner when it came to truly, authentically, connecting to his needs. There are more, many more that I know I could list.

I realized that I couldn’t be a Varsity player if I didn’t have JV skills.

So I made changes. I didn’t want to continue through life this way and more importantly, I needed to show my kids that you have to start from the beginning to get to the top. I was at a turning point in my career and in my life and I knew I needed to fully embrace the beginning to become who I wanted to be in the end.

So…

I began to do more yoga to give mobility to muscles that were the foundation for movement.

I began to break my lifts into parts before I could work on the whole.

I began to read more to discover truths not just hearsay.

I began to ask other moms what worked for them because I don’t have all the answers.

I began to resist the urge to say “I know” in situations where I really didn’t.

I began to take more classes to learn from people whose experience could add so much value to my life.

I began to look inward and study spirituality.

I began to surround myself with people who really know more than me because I needed their presence in my life to make me better.

I began to experiment on my body and try new things…because to fail on myself would be the best gift of experience I could have.

I began to try to just simply be a better listener.

I began to be more intentional and present.

And the best part…I began to learn things I would have otherwise missed out on because I was afraid to be a beginner.

When I stopped trying to always be “advanced” I realize that being a beginner was awesome. I began to see growth in my life, in my strength, in my heart and in me as a person.

I love when people come to me and admit they too are beginners. That they are beginners in understanding how to fuel their bodies and allow me the opportunity to guide them in that journey. Together we learn and each time I have the opportunity to be a beginner with them.

“Sometimes you have to take a step back and look at your life in order to take a step forward and move on in it” -Rashida Rowe

Don’t be afraid to be a beginner. Checking your pride at the door and really admitting you don’t know opens up so many opportunities for growth in mind, body and spirit. I still wrestle with that internal habit to say “I know.” But now I am aware and work to strangle that urge (most of the time) before it is spoken.

I encourage you to be a beginner too.

Work Hard Be Kind,

https://www.awalkmyway.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/beginner-blog-title.jpg315560awalkmacros@gmail.comhttps://www.awalkmyway.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/awalkmyway-logo-300x137.pngawalkmacros@gmail.com2017-02-14 04:20:402017-02-14 04:20:40Don't Be Afraid To Be A Beginner